Opiyo Oloya
17 June 2008
column
Kampala — PERSPECTIVE OF A UGANDAN IN CANADA
ZIMBABWE'S President Robert Mugabe has gone stark raving mad! If there was any doubt about the sanity of the former freedom-fighter-turned-dictator, all that changed last week. At the funeral of a former freedom fighter, Mugabe made it clear that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will never rule Zimbabwe-even if it wins a landslide victory.
Mugabe vowing never to allow Zimbabwe to be ruled by what he termed as "lackeys", promised to personally return to the bush to wage war on a new MDC government. He is reported to have said, "We are prepared to fight for our country and to go to war if we lose it the same way our ancestors lost it."
Then on Monday, just in case his captive audience missed the point, Mugabe went further to explain why he would not be relinquishing power soon. He is reported byThe Zimbabwe Herald to have said, "We shed a lot of blood for this country. We are not going to give up our country for a mere 'X' on a ballot. How can a ballpoint pen fight with a gun?" Okay, at least we now know what is in store for poor Zimbabweans.
But Mugabe conveniently forgot to mention the fact that the MDC is popular because ordinary Zimbabweans are clamouring for change. Moreover, democratic change was precisely why the costly liberation war was fought in the first place against Ian Smith's Unilateral Declaration of Independence. In his deluded self, Mugabe cannot see that he has run the once vibrant country to the ground through the corrupt practices of his appointed lackeys such that the voices of ordinary citizens no longer count. Mind you, the same citizens he claims to represent!
But, hey, why blame Mugabe when there are enough blames to go around? Several factors have colluded to allow Mugabe to luxuriate in the hallucination of being king of all Zimbabwe. Foremost, ineffectual neighbours have wrung their hands while Zimbabwe burns. To date, only tiny Botswana has lodged a formal protest over the ongoing actions of the Zimbabwean authorities against members of the opposition MDC. It is like a mosquito telling an elephant to behave.
The rest of the member states of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) have kept their collective heads in the sand in case they are gruffly asked, "What are you staring at?" South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki mildly referred to the political turmoil in Zimbabwe as "an internal affair for Zimbabwe to resolve".
It should be remembered that Mbeki stood up for Mugabe in 2005 when the US described Zimbabwe as "an outpost of tyranny" and designated it alongside Cuba and North Korea. Mbeki dismissed that label as "an exaggeration".
Secondly, timid leaders elsewhere on the continent are afraid of pointing the speck in Mugabe's eyes while ignoring the log in their own eyes.
Tyranny, as it turns out, is something best left out of polite conversations. 'MYOB'-mind your own business is the mantra adopted by all. And so Zimbabwe convulses while everyone assumes the role of onlooker at a roadside car-wreck, shaking head at the big mess and breathlessly waiting to see if there are survivors.
Thirdly, the lackadaisical attitude of developed nations has also contributed to Zimbabwe's torturous journey under Mugabe.
There was a time when western nations seemed determined to change the status quo, to shake Mugabe out of the tree. But by talking about Mugabe while doing nothing about him, allowed Mugabe to grow stronger, even more powerful. Along the way, the world became preoccupied with other urgent matters.
The western economy was tanking in major world arenas, and the perennial war on terror seemed to go from bad to worse. Somehow, an African dictator squeezing the last blood from his people did not register on the Richter scale of world political problems that needed urgent action.
Uselessly half-hearted plans of actions were hatched (mostly by Britain) but never went anywhere. Mugabe continued to hold his nose at the world, and do whatever he felt like doing. It did not help that Mugabe could justifiably point to the catastrophic US election that ushered George Bush into power in 2000, and the more recent Russia's mafia-like coronation of new president Dmitri Medvedev as examples of failures of western democracies.
If a superpower like the US can screw up big time while electing its president, what about Zimbabwe, a neophyte to the game?
Fourthly, the biggest boost to Mugabe's power madness was the Zimbabweans themselves. Like many African cousins across the big beautiful continent, Zimbabweans once considered their leader as god-sent, spending more time worshipping him than asking whether he really was doing anything for the people.
Whereas Europeans and Americans tend to give their leaders short honeymoons before asking the tough questions, Africans linger a while, worshipping their leaders ad nauseam.
Whatever the leader does, however petty or inconsequential, is treated as big news. And, over time, that kind of adulation transforms into chronic addiction as leaders crave quick fixes like addicts demanding shots in the arm. It becomes normal for the leader to stay afloat, buoyed by a false sense of popularity even as citizens applaud (and curse) him for staying there.
So, now we have Robert Mugabe, a former freedom fighter who is amok like a runaway train, a Frankenstein monster that is part created by his former colonial masters, and part by his people. And nobody knows how to stop him. Short of his heart-string giving out on him (as happened with Nigeria's Sani Abacha) he is slated to stay there a while-madness, stolen elections and all.
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Mugabe is in the midst of a titanic struggle, with himself. The forces of evil are waging and winning the war against the forces of good and this has manifested itself in the beleaguered mentality that is so apparent. The forces of darkness are prevailing, somebody needs to do SOMETHING!!
Like, take him out? Even if every sharpshooter descended on Harare and got him in their sights, this wouldn't stop the runaway train that is his joint command. This will end in so many tears for such a long time, just look at the Burmese model, his favourite holiday spot. If the military can pull it off there, why not in Zimbabwe too?
Whilst I agree with most of the writer's comments, I hold a different view about the Zimbabweans doing nothing except worshipping Uncle Bob for a long time. Maybe I forgive the writer as he seems to be missing some historical and political developments and points from Zimbabwe. The Zimbabweans have been doing their best to express their political feelings, demonstrate their democratic and constitutional rights but Uncle Bob and his ZANU (PF) band are just crooks. To begin with they swallowed and killed ZAPU through the Unity Accord in 1987 and Zimbabwe became a one party state, no opposition. Some few years down the line, Edgar Tekere who crossed side by side wit Mugabe to Mozambique to take up arms for liberation struggle, defected from ZANU (PF) sighting corruption and lack of democracy from ZANU PF government. I vividly remember him saying "democracy is in the intensive care unity and Mugabe is surrounded by political sharks”. In 1990, Tekere contested in the Presidential elections on ZUM ticket a party he had formed. Close sources had it on record that ZUM won against ZANU (PF) resoundingly but because Uncle Bob with his MR (Master of Rigging) pulled his rigging card and the results went his way. In 1995, Uncle Bob made the biggest ever mistake by awarding "O" (War) veterans a package of $50,000 at the back of significant increasing inflation and food prices. Zimbabwe Trade Congress of Trade Unions through the leadership of Morgan Tsvangirai as a Secretary General mobilised the working class for a labour unrest in the form of "stay-aways" the first ever demo to be staged by workers after independence and the whole country was paralysed. In response to the stay away, Uncle Bob and his ruthless government (uniformed forces included) came hard on the people and lives were lost in police shoot out. In between this period to 1999 when MDC was birthed, there were demonstrations by the people of Zimbabwe including the Constitutional Referendum that gave a rude awakening to ZANU (PF) as Mugabe tested defeat from the public for the first time. To prove that he is a person of force and selfishness, he released his War Vets to grab land and from that period, chaos caused by this group is the order of the day. In 2000, people voted against Uncle Bob’s government but again as a Master of Rigging, did what he knows best to enable his group to continue with the racking the country’s economy through their reckless policies and corruption tendencies. What happened in the recent election and happening during this time need no one to explain. We have all heard him announcing his character in public that he is a war monger and he is ready to fight, one wonders with who against who. Zimbos Mugabe, minus Mugabe and his cronies, I salute you for your patience, resilience, brevity and courage that you have displayed through the years. You gave the enemy a long rope to tie himself and he did it.
its very sad indeed to witness whats going on in Zimbabwe at the same time watching so called african leaders from neighbouring countries like South africa,Tanzania,kenya, uganda,mozambique,malawi,namibia etc behaving like pimps. this reminds me that in africa its only white kings and dictators that are not allowed to kill, abuse, torture and bancrupt the country. in case you happen to be black feel free to do as you wish and those so called leaders of black mafia country club will always find a way to look the other way and pretend that they are so busy finding a solution by talking to a fellow dictator knowing they too have dirty hands which can not be washed by pointing finger to "HIS CRAZYNESS MUGABE" MAY GOD BLESS THE GOOD PEOPLE OF ZIMBABWE.. BILL. KANSAS CITY. USA.